Warm Orange Honey Biscuits with Orange Mascarpone Spread

January 20, 2012

Whenever my daughter comes home for a visit, cooking and baking doubles! Not that she eats that much but rather I like to send her off with lots of love, and in my world that means, food! And along with that, I also like to make special meals we can share together.

We had these biscuits for breakfast over last weekend. A late breakfast; in fact, we can call it brunch as Gina pretty much gets up close to the noon hour when she comes home. I really don’t mind, it actually works out perfectly. She comes home, we spend time together, I go to bed and she goes out with her friends! I wake up early; take a bike ride, start playing in the kitchen and she wakes to the aromas of freshly baked goodies!

She and I got the idea for these biscuits from a cookbook she gave me for Christmas. It’s a visual cookbook, Quick and Easy – Frame by Frame. She obviously was sold on the pics as page by page are gorgeous, tempting food photos, from start to finish rather than a written recipe. The “recipe” was actually for a honey muffin which caught our attention but decided to tweak it to be more like a biscuit or scone.

For an extra creamy sweetness, I love to make flavored spreads, either using mascarpone or butter as the base and adding in ingredients to compliment what I’m serving. Cream cheese could be used as well but I prefer mascarpone as its flavor is gentler and lighter than cream cheese and is easily spreadable. It’s almost always in my fridge. I’ll use it to add a bit of thickness and creaminess to some of my dishes. It’s a triple creamy cheese, sold in small containers; it is more expensive than cream cheese and cannot always be substituted for cream cheese as its delicateness will not be as firm, i.e., as in a frosting.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease six ramekins with butter or a baking sheet. In a mixer with the paddle attachment, or large bowl with a pastry cutter, or your finger tips in a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, spice and salt and mix to combine. Add in the chilled butter pieces and quickly mix until the butter is thoroughly cut into the flour, resembling coarse meal. In a separate bowl, combine the yogurt, honey, egg and zest and mix well. Add to the dry ingredients and stir to combine. The batter will be thick. Spoon batter into greased ramekins or drop the biscuits on a greased baking sheet. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and brush on honey/orange juice mix. Serve warm.

For the Orange Mascarpone Spread, I simply took about ¼ cup of room temperature mascarpone cheese and mix with chopped oranges, splash of Grand Marnier and orange blossom honey to taste. Adjust amounts to your preference; substitute unsalted butter for an Orange Butter Spread.

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I love being in the kitchen. Early mornings, soft music, a hot espresso. Easing into the preparation of delicious meals. Glancing through cookbooks, gathering inspiration and planning my day. I look forward to the cycles of the seasons, the pleasures of tasting and savoring and sharing this with those dear to me. Weekends are special to me as my week days are often rushed, but still I create the ambiance, light the candles, set the table and uncork the wine.

You’re too sweet, what a good momma. 🙂 Whenever I visit home, my mom tends to do the same thing…sending me back with Tupperwares full of leftovers and the like. No complaints here! These biscuits sound delicious and that orange mascarpone spread? Errrr yes please!

These would be wonderful to come home to, Linda. Add that spread of yours and, if it were me, I wouldn’t leave the breakfast table until well into the afternoon. I agree with you about mascarpone versus cream cheese — and I say that even though I’m in the process of making cream cheese for a future post! Not to worry. Mascarpone is on the schedule, too.

See, isn’t that what Italians do, hang out at the table for hours!!! Now what is this about making cream cheese?? I’ve never heard of anyone making homemade cream cheese or mascarpone….I can’t wait to this!!

They’re scheduled, Linda. In 2 weeks it’s goat cheese, to be followed in a couple weeks by cream cheese. A few weeks more and it’s mascarpone, after that it’s 2 types of mozzarella. I may throw in feta, too, if I have success with it. I won’t post a recipe unless I can easily make it.

I was looking forward to reading this post all day after seeing it in my inbox earlier today. Totally worth the wait – YUM! The mascarpone cheese puts this over the top for me easily. And I love the sound of a weekend with a grown daughter. Gives me something to look forward to someday. 🙂

Wow Linda, what an amazing breakfast – I’m totally pinning this for Valentine’s day this year methinks 😀 I love orange with mascarpone – such a fantastic combination and I can just imagine the flavours from the biscuits! Beautiful 🙂

That’s so lovely that you go to so much effort when Gina comes home. You must have great times together. Her schedule when she’s home sounds very familiar! Those biscuits straight out of the oven served with marscarpone cream sound and look fabulous. I can just picture the cream melting inside the warm biscuit. Great recipe Linda.